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India’s Much-Awaited GST Is Now A Reality

President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rolled out India’s biggest tax-reform – Goods and Services Tax (GST) on July 1 at Central Hall of Parliament in a special mid-night joint session.

With the implementation of GST, while businesses are expected to perform more efficiently vis- a-vis simplification of indirect taxes, on the other hand, consumers are expected to be benefited by reduction in the prices of goods and services with elimination of the cascading impact of indirect taxes.

No Inflation From GST:

Denying that the newly launched Goods and Services Tax (GST) will lead to inflation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the prices of maximum items will either go down or remain unchanged. Jaitley also said India will not face a situation like other countries where the GST like taxes have been rolled out and seen higher inflation.

The minister said the reports of a businessman being burdened with filing 37 returns in a year under the new tax regime are totally unfounded. "I don't think prices will go up after GST implementation because we have brought down the weighted average of entire taxation. Prices may go up for a few items but prices of maximum items will either go down or remain unchanged," said Jaitley, adding that every businessman will have to file only one return by 10th of every month after which the computer software will automatically generate the rest of the reports.

"A businessman has to file only one return every month saying I sold items worth X amount. After that, this information will be tallied with his suppliers/wholesalers with the help of his GSTN number and linked to his commercial chain. At the end of the year, this information will be consolidated and on the basis of that final return, his annual assessment will be done," said Jaitley, speaking at a show of India TV.

Check-points Play No Roles Henceforth:

While several states have been proactive in removing check posts voluntarily, many more are expected to dispense with the posts for commercial taxes on Saturday when the goods and services tax (GST) kicks in. On Wednesday, the Bihar cabinet decided to stop checking of vehicles by commercial taxes department at six integrated border check posts and Madhya Pradesh too will do away with them. Similarly, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has announced in the assembly that check posts will have no place in the GST+ regime but he did not specify the date. What is, however, eye catching is that several states Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh to UP, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Odisha have done away with check posts.